The End
by dontknow2
Summary: Everything was as it should be, it was a beautiful day and everything was completely fine, she was happier than she had ever been before in her life. Everything is better than fine, so why is he crying?


**Summery: **Everything was as it should be, it was a beautiful day and everything was completely fine, she was happier than she had ever been before in her life. Everything is better than fine, so why is he crying?

**Words count:** 4,301

**Status:** Completed.

**Disclaimer: **I**do not** (unfortunately...) own 'Naruto', or the characters in it, or anything associated with it.

**A\N:** Well, this is my first attempt at a one-shot, I got a little carried away there so it's a little long but I think it's better this way.

By the way, I'm trying to improve my English so if there's any complaints about my writing (grammar, spelling or anything of the sort) please tell me so that I can improve.

Hope you'll like the story =]

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**The End**

Chapter 1

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_Present_

She looks up at the blue skies, ignoring the small burning in her eyes as the suns' light almost blinds her and smiles. Everything was as it should be, it was a beautiful day and everything was completely fine, she was happier than she had ever been before in her life. Everything is better than fine, so why is he crying?

_Two hours earlier_

"Your hands are shaking" the quiet voice brings her out of her thoughts as two blue orbs open up to look at the girl sitting beside her. "I'm a little scared" she admits, smiling softly before closing her eyes again. "This will be our last talk" she says with a small, almost unnoticeable sigh as she opens her eyes again to look at the girl. Three years have passed since it happened, three years and she still couldn't help but feel regret and shame over a decision that was made in her behalf, three years and the memory was still fresh in her mind, three years and finally she could see the end of the line, the end of her suffering. This will mark the end, this will be her last mission, this will be their last talk and this will be the last time she will look at the face of the person she loved, the person she still loves with all her heart and feel the sting of the tears that still threatened to fall, or the feeling of her heart breaking apart at the sound of her voice and her body aching for a touch long forgotten…this will be the last time; she should be terrified from the mere thought of it and yet, the thing that scares her the most was not the end, but what would come after it.

"You should be used to us not talking already" the girl says, her emerald eyes flashing with sadness as a smile appears on her delicate face, "it's already been three years since our last talk, you should have already forgotten all about it…I have" the girl says quietly, her eyes hidden behind long pink hair and she fights the sudden urge to hold her, to embrace her into her arms once again and let them both be absorbed into their own world, into a new world where no one but them existed and everything was just as it was all those years ago. More than anything she would like to simply stretch her arms and brace the smaller girl close to her, if only just to feel her warmth one last time and forget about everything that happened three years ago; more than anything she wishes that time could be rewritten, that the past did not have to remain as it really was and that her present was still shared with the small pinkette…all she wishes for at that instant is just one more lingering touch, one last chance of happiness and yet she knows better than to do as her heart tells her. She wouldn't dare to touch what she had already lost, she wouldn't let herself be fooled by the idle conversation into hoping for another chance, she wasn't deserving of her forgiveness yet, but maybe after this, maybe after the end will come she will gain this privilege and redeem her sins.

She sighs again for what seems like the hundredth time as she pushes a few stray hairs from the corner of her sight; her golden hair is loose from its usual ponytail, she didn't see the point of tying it up when she knew that in a few hours the shape of her hair wouldn't mean a thing, and besides she knew that the pinkette preferred it loose. "If you have already forgotten about me" she says, her voice loud enough only for the other to hear, "than why are you here?" she asks, another sad smile gracing her face as she looks into the eyes of her first and last real love. "Why are you here?" she asks again, her voice breaking as she fights the tears that blur her vision and the girl simply smiles.

"I'm here because you haven't forgotten yet" she says, her smile never reaching her eyes as she looks at the blonde sadly, "I'm here because once again you're doing something incredibly stupid, you're never going to change" she sighs, closing her eyes as she let the smile drop "you're always acting without thinking, rushing head first into situations like this and ignoring the consequences that might arise due to your foolish actions. You've been this way even back then, once you have your sight on something you can't help yourself but rush towards the goal you set for yourself…you're too headstrong, too confidant and way too careless for your own good" she lectures softly, her voice is strict, harsh and yet caring, like a mother explaining to her child why he shouldn't run around the house with scissors. "You're acting like a mother again" she says with a genuine smile as she looks at the pinkette. "Only because you're acting like a child again" she retaliate with a smile of her own.

"I missed this" the blonde says, her blue eyes shining with love as she looks at her companion. "You were right" she admits softly "I can't bring myself to forget about you, I don't want to forget about you…I still love you" she says, her voice breaking as a few tears escape her eyes, "I can't forget…I'm sorry Sakura" she sobs quietly, dwelling in her own pain and misery as her heart breaks into pieces. Amidst her sobs she hears her voice again, soft and delicate as always, "I never asked you to forget about me" she says, getting up from the bench they shared and walking over towards the railing of the promenade, "I just want you to forget about that day…can't you just stop beating yourself up for what happened back then?" she asks sadly "you didn't have a choice…I begged you to do it and yet you still blamed yourself in the end"

"It's been three years and you still haven't forgiven yourself for that day" she says softly. A gust of wind sends her hair flying all around her face, making the pinkette seem like the angel that she always claimed her to be, "I begged you to do it because it had to be done, I never wanted you to suffer for so long…I never wanted you to suffer at all and yet all this time, all those years you were suffering because of me" she looks at the blonde with sorrow and hurt in her emerald eyes as she continues "you have wasted three years of your life on this, you paved your life with the blood of men who did not deserve to be called men and it only helped in making you withdraw into yourself even more, and for what?" she asks broken and sad as she looks at the blonde. "Look at yourself" she says with a sad smile, "you're still shaking with fear; you're so afraid and yet you can't stop this streak of stubbornness. You keep chasing him, fighting to gain the strength needed to take him down and yet you don't really believe that you will ever achieve that strength. Even now, when he is here in your reach, when you are waiting for him to make a move and give you the leverage needed to take him down, you claim that you're doing it all to protect them, that you're not afraid of making this sacrifice and yet we both know that's a lie"

"Do you still remember that time we went to Wave with Naruto and Hinata?" the blond asks, leaning back on the bench. "Don't change the subject" Sakura says quietly, "this is a suicide mission, please Ino…let it go already and run from here"

"I was shaking back then too" the blonde continues, ignoring the girls' remark as she smiles at the memories that flashes through her mind. "That was the first time I told you I love you" she says with a smile on her face, "I was so nervous that I couldn't even sleep the night before, I was scared that you would reject me…that you will cut off our tie again and we will return to be as we were in the past, like strangers" she laughs softly, "I practiced my speech the whole night, I wanted everything to be perfect so I even bought flowers and yet when you opened the door you looked so beautiful that I choked on my words" she says, blue eyes softening as she looked at the smile on the girls' face. "I remember that day" the girl says with a smile, "you were bright red, holding onto the flowers so strongly that I thought they would break and stuttering about the weather outside" she laughs, a sound that sends the blondes' heart racing. It was like the sound of the angels singing, sweet and calming as it was carried over towards her by the wind itself, she always loved to hear her laugh. "I was so scared of telling you my feelings that I froze, I passed it out as nothing but another display of friendship and I never got to tell you the truth" the blonde says, smiling beautifully at the girl standing in front of her. "The truth is" she begins to say as the pinkette interrupts her, "don't Ino" she whispers softly. "I always regretted not telling you" the blonde says, ignoring her soft plead, "the truth is, I always…"

"Ino stop" the pinkette says, interrupting her speech once more as she looks at the blonde sadly. "I'm not really her and you know it" she says softly, "she's not really here…she's never going to be here again" she whispers and the blonde simply smiles. She knows it too well; she knows the pain of watching her loved one withering away, she knows the hardships of losing the only person she ever loved and she knows that the one standing in front of her, the one talking to her with the same face, the same voice and the same smile that she cherished so much will never be Sakura. She knows too well that this is nothing more than her imagination playing a trick on her, this was nothing more than an illusion created by her mind by the fear of death, she is not real and she knows it; she knows it and yet she doesn't want to believe in it, like everything related to the pinkette, it suffocates her. "I know" she says with a broken voice, "he took her away from me, he took her away and I never even told her how I felt"

"It still haunts me in my dreams" she admits, "for three years I couldn't sleep, I couldn't even keep my eyes closed because whenever I tried the images of that day would come to me. For three years the only thing on my mind was the image of your face, filled with pain as you begged me to end your life…you begged me to end your life Sakura" she says, her voice coming out choked as the lump in her throat grows bigger and the tears fall from her eyes, "I loved you more than anything in this world, more than life itself and yet I was the reason you died…I killed you with these hands" she says, looking at her hands with hatred. "You said you wanted me to forget about that day, you said you forgave me so I should forgive myself, but how could I?" she asks broken. "Every time a drop of rain lands on my hand I remember the feel of your blood slowly running down my arms, every time I hear his name I remember the way he smiled and turned to leave and every time I remember those things I feel empty inside. I'm already broken…for three years I yearned to see you again, I wanted to hear your voice again, even just for a minute and here you are, standing right in front of me, you're you and yet you aren't" her eyes soften as she looks at the pinkette, "I already know that and yet I beg you, please, even if this is nothing but a dream, even if none of this is real and we both know it, please let me have this dream just for today, just this time"

"I love you" she says looking at emerald eyes, "I always loved you Sakura and I always will" she smiles. After all this time she finally said it, if everything ends today at least she could have this sweet dream before it happened.

_Half an hour earlier_

"Did you really believe this level of skills will be enough to stop me?" the cold voice pierced the air as the sound of steps was drowned away by the sound of the falling rain. "Did you really think that someone as weak as you stood a chance against me?" he asks, standing above her body with a look of arrogance on his face. "You can't kill me" he says confidently, blood-red eyes staring at her bloody form with clear disgust, "none of you can…" he whispers.

"Fuck you" she spits angrily. If only she could manage to move her arms she would have wiped his arrogant smile off of his face; she would have stoop up on her broken legs, ignoring the agonizing pain that followed such action and she would have ripped his throat out and watch him die slowly. If only she was stronger she could have stood against him as equal, she could have done more, hurt him more, watch him shrivel in pain as she dealt the final blow. If only she was stronger she could have erased what he has done to her all those years ago, she could have protected everything that was stolen away from her by the man she used to consider her first crush…but she wasn't strong enough to stand against him, she never was and probably never will. She can't bring back what he had taken from her and she can't erase what has been done, but she already knew that. This mission was her last one; this fight was never meant to be won by her and with the power of her village, with the power of her friends and comrades he will be taken down if only she could manage to stall him a little more. "She always thought that deep down you still cared about them" she says, her voice hoarse and broken as the blood drips from her mouth, "she said that after you'll be done with him you will come back to them and everything will be like it was before" she whispers opening her blue eyes to stare at his own red ones as he simply smirk at her words. "She trusted you even after everything you've done…even after everyone else has lost faith in your humanity she believed that you are still human" she let a small painful smile grace her face as a few tears escape her eyes, "she was the only one left who still wanted you to return and you betrayed her trust…you are not human, I doubt you could ever be called that…a cold hearted monster like you doesn't deserve to walk this earth"

"Cold hearted monster? Doesn't deserve to walk this earth? This is a joke" he says, pushing black hair from his face as he smiles sadistically at her, "you call me a killer…a traitor, but what is it that I betrayed? I never asked her to believe in me, I never wanted to return to the way things were in the past and you can't blame me for the incompetence of you and your village" he looks at her with satisfaction. "Every single one of us can be called a killer, a monster and every other name that will describe these things we did, the only thing separating you and me, besides the complete lack of strength you demonstrated today, is that you kill when given an order and I kill whenever I want to. If I am a monster, then how should I call you? How should I call a woman who spent her life killing the so called enemies of her country without ever wondering why? I may be a monster but you and everyone in your village are far worse than me, you're nothing but another obedient killing machine…fucking tools" he spits turning his back to her.

"You are such a fool" she sighs, closing her eyes when the pain from keeping them opened was too strong. "And why am I a fool exactly?" he inquire quietly as she smiles. "You are a fool because you honestly believe those foolish words coming out of your ungrateful mouth" she says softly "you actually believe that we are alike, that we have something in common and in reality we are nothing alike, you and I are opposites and it doesn't have anything to do with us being killers. Look around you sometimes" she says tiredly, "you can't survive this world without shading blood. I never said that we were better than you in that aspect, but unlike you we don't throw away those who are important to us, we don't shut our heart close when we lose someone dear to us, and we all lost someone like that…you are a monster; you are a monster not because you killed so many people who stood in your way but because you used those who cared about you, time and time again you managed to shatter the small ray of trust that those two still held for you and for what? You already had your revenge, your brother is already dead, your family is already dead…you lost everyone and yet you didn't lose _her_. She waited for you to come back, she trusted you and loved you like a brother and yet towards the only person who still considered you to be precious, towards the only one who still hasn't lost her faith in you, what did you do?" she yells, ignoring the pain that shoots throw her body with every word said as she opens her eyes to look at his back. "What did you do?" she asks again in a whisper, her voice shaking as she fights the darkness that threatens to devour her whole.

_Two months earlier_

"Auntie Ino" the small girl says with delight at the sight of the older woman. She smiles, despite the fact that she feels like crying, despite the fact that she hasn't slept in days and the mere thought of falling asleep scared her more than she could ever say and despite the fact that she was broken inside; she smiles, opening her arms as the young child runs towards her. "How is my princess doing?" she asks, trying to sound as cheerful as she could, to hide her true feeling from the young girl who looked at her with nothing but childish adoration as she lifts her up in her arms. "Daddy took me to see Akamaru, he wasn't feeling very well today but Kiba said that next time when he's feeling better he'll let me ride him" the girl says happily, jumping with delight in her arms as she talk but all the blonde notices at that moment is the serious expression on her friends' face. "And then I found this rock" the girl continues happily, unaware of the serious atmosphere around her as she spoke "and daddy said it was a magical rock so we took it to show mommy, and…"

"Kushina" Naruto says, stopping the girl from telling Ino yet another story about her day. "Go inside and show mommy you magical rock, daddy needs to talk with auntie Ino alone for a minute…tell mommy about how much fun you had with daddy today and maybe she will make us something yummy as a reward for behaving ourselves" he says softly, smiling his trade mark smile at the exited child as she waved goodbye to Ino and ran into the house.

"How long has it been since you've slept for the first time?" he asks quietly as soon as the door of the house closes and they are left alone. "Every time I see you, you look paler and paler" he looks at her with worry, "I can't begin to understand what you're going through, but every day I see you withering slowly and it feels like the moment I look away from you, you will simply disappear forever" he says softly, his voice filled with worry and she fights the sudden urge to cry. "We miss her too" he says, his eyes tell her that he already figured out how his words made her feel, as if he knew exactly what was happening inside her heart and it scares her because her heart is the last thing she wants any of them to see and the truth is the last thing she ever wanted revealed. "We're worried about you Ino" he says quietly, "Hinata keeps asking me how you're doing and I keep dodging because I honestly don't know what to tell her; she's terrified that you will go after _him_, that you'll give up everything for a chance to avenge her death, that you'll act like a hero and follow his footsteps alone" he says, looking at her sadly "every time she tells me these thoughts I want to reassure her, I want to tell her that you'll be fine, that you won't act without at least telling us, that one day you will finally be at peace with what happened that day and you'll return to being the old you. I want to tell her that but I can't because she's the only one I'm not willing to lie to and telling her those things, telling her these words that I can't even bring myself to believe in will be the same as lying…Ino" his voice softens, "don't make me a liar, please, even if something comes up, don't throw your life away for this…this isn't how she wanted you to live your life" he says and she feels her heart breaking.

"I can't promise you that" she says honestly, looking at him with a sad smile on her face. "I can't promise you that, because all I ever wanted since it happened was to kill him. You say that this isn't how she wanted me to live my life, but she can't say those things anymore; she can't see me now, she can't see what I've become…she's dead Naruto" she says broken, a single tear making its way down her face, "she's dead and he was the one who did this to her, she's dead and she will never come back…I can't forgive him for that, I will never forgive him for that, not until he's dead"

"I just want to be with her..." she whispers.

_Present_

"Ino" Naruto says, his tears are slowly mixing with the blood on his face as he looks at her as if she was about to die and she can't understand the reason for his sorrow. _'I'm fine'_ she wants to say but for some reason the words refuse to leave her mouth and her body refuses to move. From the corner of her eye she can see them looking at her; she sees Tsunade holding onto a sobbing Choji, she can see Shikamaru with his eyes closed and tears running down his face, she can see Hinata falling to her knees as she breaks down into tears and Naruto holding onto her gently as he whispered words she could not understand. From the corner of her eye she can see them all wearing the same expression of sorrow and loss, and she can't understand how they got to this point. She was fine, everything was fine, she wasn't dying…she was perfectly healthy just tired, that's all. She wants to reassure them, to make them understand that it was only fatigue, that she only needed to rest for a while and when she wakes up everything will be just like it was before, that these tears they're shading are wasted on this moment; she wants to tell them all that but she's too tired to even speak so she settles for a smile. She smiles because deep down for some reason she's truly happy, she smiles because before she goes to sleep she wants them to smile too, she smiles because she finally attained something she truly wanted and yet she could not remember what it was in the first place…she smiles and they all break down and cry even harder.

"It's going to be alright Ino" Naruto says between sobs, "everything will be alright…Sakura, she's waiting for you over there so don't be afraid" he says heartbroken. She can't remember anything, she doesn't understand where it is she was supposed to go to or even why, but the thought of Sakura waiting for her makes her wish she could get there faster. She closes her eyes; she's tired, so tired that she can't even think straight so she lets her eyes close just for a moment, just to let them rest for a while. She closes her eyes and smiles, because everything was as it should be, everything was just fine.

"Don't go" she hears them say, "wake up" they beg her, but it's too late, she's already drifting to sleep and she knows that everything will be fine now; everything will be fine because this time her dream will surely be sweet, because she's there waiting for her. She closes her eyes and lets the sweet dreams fill her heart and soul.

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_'While we are mourning the death of our friend, _

_Others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil'_


End file.
